Smith Accepts Job With State Tax Commission
Tara Smith has announced plans to step down as Wayne County Assessor. Smith has accepted a position with the State Tax Commission.
She will resign her position as Wayne County Assessor effective Aug 15th, 2022. Smith is serving her first term as assessor but has been in the assessor’s office for over two decades. She was elected in November 2020 and took office Sept. 1, 2021, and replaced Frances Huitt who retired.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Smith told the newspaper. “A position become available for the southeast Missouri region and those don’t come up very often. The timing of course wasn’t the greatest since I’ve not even been in office a year yet but I thought about it pretty hard and went ahead and applied. I was shocked to get the news they wanted me! My almost 23 years of experience in the assessment field is what got me the job.”
The county assessor is charged with placing a fair market value on property as of the tax date. The property tax in Missouri is “ad valorem,” meaning taxes are based on property value. The assessor has no jurisdiction or responsibility for taxing jurisdiction budgets or establishing the tax rate.
The Wayne County Commission will be accepting applications to fill her position pending the appointment by the governor to fulfill the remainder of her term (Aug 31, 2025). If interested, please provide a letter to the Wayne County Commission, P.O. Box 48, Greenville, MO 63944 no later than Monday, Aug 8th.
If you desire to fill this elected position for the remaining of the current term, please petition the Governor’s office for your appointment. The temporary position doesn’t necessarily mean that that individual will be Governor’s appointment.
At this time the Wayne County Republican Central Committee has not endorsed any potential temporary candidate to the Wayne County Commission nor any candidate till fill the remaining term to the Governor’s office. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to any of the Wayne County Republican Central Committee members.
